Doomsday Book
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the record of an official survey of England made during the reign of William the Conqueror. The origin of the name is in dispute. It is connected by tradition with the tyranny of the Norman nobles. As studied nowadays, it appears to be a very systematic record of the ownership and occupancy of land. The names of owners and renters are set down, together with the extent of land occupied by each. Other items were the number of acres under tillage, in pasture, in meadow, or in forest, together with the number and kind of domestic animals. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says: "So very straitly did he cause the survey to be made, that there was not a single hyde, nor a yardland of ground, nor--it is shameful to say what he thought no shame to do--was there an ox or a cow or a pig passed by, and that was not down in the accounts, and then all these writings were brought to him." At all events, the Doomsday Book became the official register of land ownership. It covers the greater part of England. In that country land titles start with the Doomsday Book. The original is still preserved in the government archives at London. See William The Conqueror; Record Office Dor'e do-ra, Paul Gustave (1833-1883), a noted French illustrator of books. He was born at Strasburg. He received his education, lived, and died in Paris. His illustrations of the Bible, of Dante's Inferno, Milton's Paradise Lost , Tennyson's Idylls of the King , and Cervantes' Don Quixote have made him famous. He is not unknown as a painter, but in this department his fame is quite secondary. Dore' was decorated with the cross of the Legion of Honor in 1861.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The survey Aiton's described in 1910 is the same document today, though the spelling "Domesday" has long since displaced "Doomsday" in official and scholarly use, and the disputed name is now generally traced to the idea of a verdict from which there was no appeal, as from doomsday itself. The claim that "in that country land titles start with the Doomsday Book" no longer holds in practice: the Land Registration Act 1925 and the completion of compulsory registration in the 1990s put English land title on the Land Registry's books, although Domesday remains admissible evidence of ancient tenure. The original left the Public Record Office in Chancery Lane and is now held by The National Archives at Kew, having been taken apart and rebound as five volumes for its 900th anniversary in 1986; it has since been photographed, translated and put online, so anyone can search it by place name. Aiton's caution that it "covers the greater part of England" still stands, since London, Winchester and the far northern counties were left out.
Written for this edition, 2026.